Drug development is a time-consuming process from the start of research to obtaining approval, and the probability of success with a candidate compound is extremely low. We aim to understand the characteristics of the flow and localization of knowledge during drug development in the global pharmaceutical industry. We analyze the multilayer network constructed with the drug pipeline layer, global supply chain layer, and global ownership layer. First, we identify the bow-tie structure and the community structure of each network layer. The obtained bow-tie structure shows the large strongly connected component and suggests that the knowledge flow in drug pipelines has similar characteristics as the supply chain network. The communities in each layer are characterized by country, category of the company, and bow tie component. We then study the multilayer network’s knowledge flow, conduct a statistical test, and verify the significance of the overlapping links between the drug pipeline and supply chain layers. Our results suggest a strong connection between open innovation in the pharmaceutical industry and firms’ economic activities in the supply chain.

从研究开始到获得批准，药物开发是一个耗时的过程，候选化合物成功的可能性非常低。我们旨在了解全球制药行业药物开发过程中知识流动和知识本地化的特征。我们分析了由药品管道层，全球供应链层和全球所有权层构成的多层网络。首先，我们确定每个网络层的领结结构和社区结构。所获得的领结结构显示了强大的关联组件，并表明药品管道中的知识流具有与供应链网络相似的特征。每层中的社区均按国家/地区，公司类别和领结组成来描述。然后，我们研究多层网络的知识流，进行统计检验，并验证药品管道和供应链层之间重叠链接的重要性。我们的结果表明，制药行业的开放式创新与企业在供应链中的经济活动之间存在着紧密的联系。